More Than Your Mistakes
by zivadaveed
Summary: Alone in his basement, Ziva tells Gibbs that his life is in danger; the Reynosa Cartel is back and out for his blood. Battling with Rule 10 and the consequences of a 30-year-old secret, Gibbs jumps into a dangerous investigation hoping to spare himself and the team that has become his family. A multiple-chapter one-shot inspired by the most recent NCIS episode, Daughters.
1. Chapter 1

_Hello everyone! This is just a little one-shot that was inspired by the recent return of my fave Ms. Ziva David. I'm not quite sure how long it will be yet but stay tuned. I hope you enjoy! :)_

* * *

"Ziver."

There she was, right in front of him, her wild curly hair spilling down her back. Her olive skin glowed in the basement's dim light, a small crooked smile breaking across her lips. She gazed almost apologetically at him with her dark eyes, seeming to scan him for any signs of anger. It was as if he were looking at a ghost, looking not a day older than when he had seen her last. He wondered if she was just another Diane-maybe Fornell was right...he really was losing it. He blinked hard, his own disbelief was clouding his common sense.

"You are in danger, Gibbs," Ziva repeated softly, breaking the silence. "We must leave. Now."

She turned away, determinedly walking towards the stairs, but stopped at the foot of the staircase, turning back to him with a furrowed brow. He stood still, unable to move. He felt as though someone had used wood glue to permanently fasten his feet to the floor. He couldn't go on without an explanation. There was so much he wanted to say and yet he couldn't find any words. Ziva swallowed.

"There is not much time, and frankly, you, standing there, could get all of us killed." She turned again and began climbing the stairs two at a time, her steps barely making any noise.

"All of us...?" Gibbs questioned distantly, watching her from his frozen position. Ziva leaned over the railing at the top of the stairs as another small smile crept across her lips.

"Come and see for yourself."

Just then there was a tiny crash, like the shattering of glass, from upstairs followed by a fit of delighted giggles. Ziva's smile turned apologetic. She stepped back through the doorway and disappeared down the hallway, snapping Gibbs out of his confused daze. He jogged up the stairs after Ziva, feeling unprepared for what he knew he would find once he arrived upstairs.

"_Tali, lo noge'im bameh sheyno_," he heard Ziva scolding from his living room. Gibbs advanced slowly down the hallway. "I told you to hold her and keep her quiet, while I went to get Gibbs." Ziva said sharply, switching to English. "I was gone for _two minutes_."

"Hey, don't blame me, she's very impatient and is always breaking things, especially when she's tired." Another deeper voice protested from the living room. "She gets that from her mother, ya know."

At the end of the hallway, Gibbs rounded the corner to find Ziva kneeling on the ground, picking the shards of some glass paperweight out of the carpet while a little girl with a full head of blonde curls squirmed in the arms of none other than Tony Dinozzo. Ziva stood when Gibbs entered.

"Oh, hey Boss," Tony said, filling the silence. "I love what you've done with the place." He smiled a big toothy grin. Tali whined.

"Abba, put me down!" She cried and struggled some more, kicking Tony in the stomach with her tiny feet.

"She kicks like her mother too," Tony grunted, doubling over dramatically. He put Tali down and she ran to Ziva, wrapping her stubby arms around her mother's left leg. She blew a raspberry in her father's direction and then eyed Gibbs warily from behind Ziva's leg.

"We must keep moving," Ziva said, glancing out the window worriedly. "Come on, Gibbs, we'll explain on the way."

"To where?" Gibbs said irritably. There was clearly something bad happening, and the fact that Ziva was keeping him in the dark bothered him. Ziva would not have come out of hiding with Tony and Tali just to hold an awkward reunion and break his paperweight.

"Trust me." Ziva said. She reached down and smoothed back Tali's hair from her forehead, holding Gibbs's gaze evenly. Gibbs looked at Tony. Dinozzo shifted his weight uneasily, wearing a grim expression.

"Okay," Gibbs nodded. "Let's go."

* * *

The three adults rushed out to the dark rental sedan that was parked around the corner from his house, Tali in Tony's arms. Tony reached into his pocket for the keys, and the car chirped as it was unlocked. Ziva flinched at the shrill noise, and scanned the street nervously. Gibbs slid into the passenger's side as Tony buckled Tali into her car seat in the back.

Gibbs watched as Tali babbled softly in the back seat, picking up a stuffed monkey from the seat beside her and telling it a story. Suddenly, a bright light swept over the front of the sedan, momentarily washing the dark car with white. Gibbs turned his head to find Ziva peering down the street, watching as an SUV slid slowly out of where it had been parked in a neighbor's driveway. Her shoulders were tense, and her hand had drifted to rest upon the handle of the glock she had stuffed in the waistband of her jeans.

"Gibbs..." She warned. The backseat window of the SUV rolled down slightly, and something flashed in the moonlight.

"TONY!" Ziva tackled Tony, landing in the car just as a wave of bullets rained down on the car. Gibbs keeled over in the passenger's seat, taking cover behind the steering wheel. Tali began to scream. The windshield and side windows shattered above Gibbs. Glass shards sliced at his scalp and slid down his shirt. He reached for his side to grab his gun, but it wasn't there; it must have fallen out of its holster. He felt around his seat for it. There was the sound of screeching tires as the SUV sped off back down the street.

Finding his gun, Gibbs sat up quickly, immediately turning to the backseat. Tony was brushing glass out of his hair, a tiny river of blood making its way down his temple. Ziva was pushing herself off of Tali after shielding her daughter with her body during the shooting. Tali was still wailing, her eyes swollen with tears. Ziva frantically checked Tali for any wounds. Finding none, she leaned back onto the seat, relief flooding her body. Tony sat up and took Tali in his arms, stroking her hair and talking to her quietly. Her wails were quickly soothed to small whimpers. Ziva wrapped her arms around the both of them, trying to stop Tali's trembling. Her left arm had a long gash that ran from her shoulder to her elbow, but it seemed shallow because the blood had already begun to congeal. She locked eyes with Gibbs. He suppressed a shudder. It was a mere miracle that no one had been killed.

If he hadn't stalled...

* * *

They didn't stay to talk about what happened; there wasn't time to let the close call affect them. The rental car was disabled so they piled into Gibbs's car, keeping an eye out for any other malicious vehicles. It didn't take long for Tali to fall asleep in her carseat as Tony drove to the nearest gas station. When Tony parked in front of the gas pump, Ziva slid out of the backseat and stole the plates off of another car in the lot. After purchasing some snacks and a first aid kit from the deserted food mart, Gibbs installed the stolen plates in place of the old ones. With new plates and food for the road, the trio headed northwest towards a remote safehouse in the Virginia woods.

"I never meant for it to happen like this, Gibbs." Ziva said once they were settled and on the road. She finished bandaging the gash on her arm and leaned forward between the two front seats so that she could see Gibbs's face. His eyes were fixed firmly on the road.

"The faked death or the shooting?" Gibbs said with his jaw clenched.

"I wanted to tell you," Ziva said, pursing her lips, "right after it happened. But I couldn't. It was too much of a risk. I thought you, of all people, would understand."

"_Understand_?" Gibbs said, anger boiling up inside of him. "When we saw it on the news, we thought-I thought..."

"I know what you thought." Ziva caught Gibbs's eye and they held each other's gaze for a couple beats. "You know the things that I have done. You know the enemies that I have made. Things changed, Gibbs. I have a daughter to protect. I could not let her grow up in that world." Ziva glanced at Tali who was still sleeping peacefully in her car seat. "I-I thought you...would _understand_."

Gibbs took a deep breath. She was right, he did understand; there wasn't a day when he didn't wish he had done the same all those years ago for his own family. Things might have been different.

"We came back because you're in danger." Tony said, breaking the silence. He took one hand off of the steering wheel and entwined it with Ziva's.

"Yeah," Gibbs said bitterly, focusing his eyes back on the road. "So I've heard."

"Three weeks ago, there was a mass shooting at a taqueria in Columbia Heights, believed to be drug-related." Tony began.

"At first, police believed it to be regular gang violence," Ziva continued, "but further investigation linked the crime to a powerful Mexican drug cartel."

"The Reynosa drug cartel," Tony added. Gibbs's eyes snapped away from the road in surprise.

"Did they talk to-"

"Alejandro Rivera," Ziva said, interrupting Gibbs. She nodded her head. "That is the first thing they did...or tried to do anyway." Gibbs raised his eyebrows.

"Rivera escaped from prison one week prior to the shooting," Tony said, answering Gibbs's silent question. "They have no leads as to his whereabouts."

"How did you hear about this before I did?" Gibbs said, annoyance tinging his voice.

"Our little Israeli is not the only one with helpful contacts." Tony said, squeezing Ziva's hand. "A buddy of mine who is working the case mentioned it briefly when I called him the other day to catch up."

"Police talked to Rivera's cellmate, and he mentioned that Rivera had been planning to escape for some time." Ziva said. "Rivera said that once he was out, he was going to get the revenge he has been longing for since the day he was arrested. Revenge on-"

"Me," Gibbs finished, staring at the road again. There was another beat of silence, during which Gibbs wondered if they knew. Did they know why Rivera wanted revenge? Did they know the terrible thing he had done all those years ago? He hoped they didn't. He had spent many years trying so hard to convince himself it was a justified act, so hard that he wasn't sure he had the energy to convince them.

"That's when we knew we had to come warn you." Tony said, forcing Gibbs out of his thoughts. "He had tried to kill you before, we figured he might try again. And after that Sopranos-style shootout back there, I'm guessing we were right."

"Why did you come?" Gibbs asked.

"Well, we just told you, Boss-"

"No, why did _you_ come?" Gibbs said, this time looking at Ziva. "Tony could have called McGee, or Bishop, or anyone for that matter. You could have stayed in Paris. Why come out of hiding? Why put yourself at risk again after working so hard to disappear?"

Ziva hesitated, glancing back at Tali again. She let go of Tony's hand and stroked Tali's tiny one with her index finger. "Because," Ziva began slowly. "There was a time when I was in trouble, and I needed help, and you dropped everything to come and save me." She met Gibbs's gaze evenly. "I thought it was about time that I return the favor."

After a few seconds of silence, a corner of Gibbs's mouth lifted slightly and his eyes crinkled, forming a tiny smile. "It's good to see you, Ziva."

Ziva smiled back, her dark eyes lightening. "It is good to see you too, Gibbs."

"Yeah, it's great to see you too, Boss." Tony cut in a little dejectedly. Ziva smirked.

"So what's the plan?" Gibbs asked, his tone turning businesslike.

"The plan is to find Rivera, I guess," Tony said. "But we don't have any leads, and it's difficult to look for some when you don't have a badge."

"We thought he might be hiding out somewhere that has some significance to the death of his sister, Paloma Reynosa." Ziva put in. "Maybe he wants to avenge her death somewhere significant." Gibbs suppressed a cringe. Ziva noticed. "That is...why he's after you, right?"

Gibbs hesitated. He had already broken rule number 4 and told his secret to the entire team. Would it matter if he told Tony and Ziva too?

"Gibbs?" Ziva asked, noting his silence.

"That's only half the story." Gibbs said slowly. "I killed his father."

Tony slammed on the breaks, bringing the car to a full stop. "You what?"

"His father killed Shannon and Kelly," Gibbs said, his throat constricting.

Tony stared at Gibbs, wide-eyed. "Well, yeah, we know that but-"

"So I found him. Shot him. In cold blood." Gibbs looked out at the road.

They sat in a stunned silence, unsure of what to say. Then Gibbs caught Ziva's eye. She gazed at him, his eyes seeming to say, _I thought you would understand_. She thought back to the night she killed Ilan Bodner, the man who had murdered her father. Staring down at his bloody, lifeless body from over the ship's railing, she remembered very vividly how the satisfaction had coursed through her body. She did understand.

"That was a long time ago," Ziva said, still holding Gibbs's gaze. She could see the torment clearly written in his glacier blue eyes. "You are a different man now. Let it go."

Tony started the car and began to drive again. "Why don't we call McGee?" Tony suggested. "It won't be long before he and the rest of the team find out about the car."

"True," Ziva agreed, "but for now, we must stay on the move and avoid contact. They do not know that I am alive, and for their own safety and ours, it is better that they do not."

* * *

_Thanks for making it through the chapter! I'm writing the next one now. Let me know what you think! _


	2. Chapter 2

_Hello and welcome to the second chapter! Thank you for those of you who favorited, followed, and reviewed. Enjoy :) _

* * *

It was 07.00, and the NCIS bullpen was buzzing with activity. Bishop lounged at her desk, carefully spreading out a napkin, preparing to eat her favorite breakfast treat, an almond croissant. Her mouth watered as she delicately shook it out of the bag and onto the napkin, the delicious aromas of butter and vanilla wafting towards her. Neither Torres nor McGee were in yet, and despite the office buzz around her, she felt that the morning was quite a peaceful one.

She pulled out the bottom side drawer of her desk and pulled out a worn black composition notebook, laying it flat on her desk. It was one of Ziva's journals, labeled as number 10 on the spine. She looked around the room, searching for anyone who might be watching her. Finding none, she slid her finger underneath the cover and opened it. She turned to the dog-eared page where she had left off, and began to read.

"I thought Gibbs told you to leave that stuff alone." Torres said from behind her. Bishop jumped, snapping the book shut and glaring at her partner. He was kneeling on a desk chair in the cubicle behind her so that he could see clearly over her shoulder, his black tactical backpack slung over one arm.

"I thought Gibbs told you to stay out of other people's business." Bishop countered, quickly shoving the journal back into her desk drawer. "And besides, I am leaving it alone."

"That doesn't look like leaving it alone to me." Torres cocked his head at her. "You're still reading her journals."

"She is an interesting person." Bishop said, shrugging him off. "There's a lot I can learn from her."

"She _was_ an interesting person." Torres corrected, eyeing Bishop.

Bishop bit her lip. "Right." She watched as Torres demounted the desk chair and rounded the cubicle walls, heading for his desk. "Have you seen McGee?" She asked him.

"No, actually, I was just going to ask you." Torres said, his eyes flicking over to the senior field agent's empty desk. "His parking space was empty when I passed it just now."

"Hm, maybe he's just running late." Bishop took a bite of her croissant.

"Why? You wanna sneak in another chapter before he gets here?" Torres smiled at her teasingly.

"No," Bishop said through her mouthful. She swallowed. "It's just unlike him to be late." Suddenly her phone began to ring, and McGee's face popped up onto her screen. She raised her eyebrows at Torres as though to say, _speak of the devil_. She answered. "What's up McGee? Where are you?"

"Turn on the news." McGee said, his voice urgent. Bishop could hear police sirens wailing in the background. An icy cold wave of dread washed over her.

"What?"

"Just do it, channel 4."

Torres, seeing her face, asked what was wrong, but she didn't respond. She grabbed the remote from McGee's desk and clicked the button for channel 4 news. She nearly dropped the remote.

"_Last night at around 1 AM, neighbors heard a series of loud bangs that sounded like gunfire coming from the street_." A blonde reporter said feverishly on the screen. "_They exited their homes in the morning to find a horrific sight..._" The reporter's voice faded to white noise. There, in the middle of the screen, was Gibbs's house. In front of it sat a dark sedan that was riddled with bullet holes, all of its windows completely shattered. Bishop couldn't help but notice the streaks of blood on the back seats. Her body went numb.

She squeezed her phone tightly, her fingers turning as white as her face. "We're on our way."

* * *

Time at the crime scene seemed to pass in slow motion. Bishop interviewed witnesses while McGee and Torres processed the car. Bishop's mind kept wandering as she jotted down notes from the eyewitnesses, too busy worrying about Gibbs. After everything that had happened that week, this shooting could not be just a coincidence. First a group of rogue justices is out to send Gibbs to jail, then Gibbs drops a bomb on the team about his damning secret, and now a drive by shooting in front of his house, which he is absent from without any explanation...

Bishop closed her notepad and tucked it into her jacket pocket. She thanked the witness that she had been interviewing and turned back towards the dilapidated car.

"McGee," she called to where the senior agent stood talking on the phone by the trunk of the car. "Do you have an update?"

"I just got off the phone with Kasie." McGee said, hanging up the phone and slipping it into his pant pocket. "She ran the vehicle's plates and turns out it's a rental."

Torres popped his head up from the passenger's side door where he had been dusting for fingerprints. "Did she find out who rented it?"

"Not exactly," McGee said, frowning. "She said that for some reason, when the car was rented, the rental company accidentally forgot to make copies of the renter's driver's license. Therefore, they only have a name, no photo."

Bishop furrowed her eyebrows. "That's a pretty big mistake. What's the name?"

"Laura Daniels," McGee said, shrugging his shoulders. "I wouldn't read too much into it though; Kasie thinks it's an alias. She's running it down as we speak."

Bishop bit her lip. The name sounded extremely familiar to her. _Laura Daniels_. She had heard it before, but she couldn't figure out from where. She searched her memories for a moment before shrugging it off, placing it at the back of her mind. Her focus needed to be at the crime scene.

"As for the blood in the back seat," McGee continued, moving around to the side of the car, "most of the stains are from skin contact, meaning that whomever was bleeding probably only had a minor wound, otherwise there would be pools of blood on the seats." He gestured to a couple of dark smudges of blood on the middle and left seats.

"That's good news," Torres put in. "That means that whoever was in here probably left alive."

"Yeah, but look at this one." McGee leaned farther into the car to point at a larger smudge on the left seat. "See this line?" He traced his finger along one edge of the stain. It was oval-shaped except for one side which had a clean, straight line. "Normal blood stains and smudges don't form straight lines like this."

"So...there was something there." Bishop said slowly. "Something that blocked the rest of the blood stain from forming on the seat."

"Exactly." McGee said, his voice carrying a hint of excitement.

"What does that tell us exactly?" Torres said skeptically.

"Well, whatever was there was obviously important enough for someone to remove it and take it with them." McGee said, raising his eyebrows. "Possibly something worth killing over?"

"Yeah, but literally anything could have blocked the stain." Torres argued. "Anything with a straight edge. Like, uh, a piece of paper, or a blanket, or a-"

"Car seat," Bishop said softly. She felt sick to her stomach.

"What?" McGee asked, looking at her.

She remembered where she had heard the name Laura Daniels before. It was the name of the mother of a navy lieutenant who had been raped several years ago, another one of Ziva's cases that had been recorded in the journals. Bishop's head spun. Was it possible? Was Ziva back in the states with her daughter? She opened her mouth to answer McGee, but then closed it again. This was crazy; there was no way that Ziva was involved in this. They didn't even know for sure if Gibbs was involved in this. She decided she'd better wait until the DNA from the blood came back before she blew Ziva's secret.

"Nothing," Bishop said, forcing herself to seem unfazed. "Just, uh, spitballing ideas."

McGee surveyed her for a minute before continuing. "Alright, well, Torres and I will be done processing the scene soon. Bishop, you go back to the office and help Kasie." Bishop nodded her head, her mind reeling. If this was Ziva, who was shooting at her? And where the hell was Gibbs?

* * *

The safe house was located behind a thick clump of trees, just barely accessible by car. Everything there was extremely quiet; only the wind rustling through the trees and the chirping of birds by day and crickets by night. There wasn't another house or even a highway for miles. Perfectly isolated. Something Gibbs might have liked if he were taken there under different circumstances.

He was sitting with Tali and Ziva in the living room of the house. The barren walls were painted a sickening beige, a sagging moth-eaten couch shoved into one corner. Gibbs chose to sit in the stocky wooden chair that was pushed up against the wall by a window. Ziva was sitting on the carpet with her legs spread out, watching Tali as her daughter talked to herself, moving around the two dolls clasped tightly in her tiny fists. Tony had left about two hours ago to get groceries. They had arrived at the safe house very late the night before, deciding that they would further discuss their game plan in the morning. But now it was the morning, Tony was still gone, and Gibbs was getting antsy.

He shifted in his seat. Ziva looked up at him, noticing his impatience. Her hair was much longer and more unruly than the last time he had seen her. Back when she still worked for him, she had straightened her hair every day, pulling it back into a ponytail. With her hair like this, wild and curly, she looked more carefree. Happier. His gaze fell to her hands, which rested on the carpet in front of her. She wasn't wearing a wedding ring of any kind, an observation that brought a number of questions to the forefront of his mind.

"About two and a half years," Ziva said suddenly, as though reading his mind.

"What?"

"How long Tony has known."

"I...didn't ask."

"You did not have to." Ziva smiled slightly. There was a long pause, during which Gibbs tried to decide how to proceed. He still had so many questions.

"He took it better than expected, considering," Ziva continued, breaking the silence. "I guess it was because he was still partially in denial."

"Are you-"

"-married?" Ziva finished, shaking her head. "No. But we are in a relationship of some sorts." Ziva rolled her eyes as though she didn't like putting a label on it. Or maybe it was because of who she was dating. Gibbs couldn't tell.

"You could have come to me, Ziva," Gibbs said suddenly, leaning forward in his chair. "You know I would never betray you." Ziva stopped playing with Tali and gave him a sideways glance.

"I know that." Ziva said, running a hand through her hair. "Call me crazy, but at the time, I could not stop thinking about Rule 4."

"Aw, hell," Gibbs said, leaning back in his chair again, exasperated. His rules were really starting to bite him in the ass.

"The best way to keep a secret is to keep it to yourself-"

"I know how my damn rules go." Gibbs snapped.

"I felt..." Ziva swallowed hard, "I felt that Tony deserved to know." She took a deep breath. "I had kept his daughter from him too long."

Gibbs looked away from her and out the window, trying to keep his anger checked. He stood up from the chair and leaned against the wall instead.

"I was...I was _scared_, Gibbs." Ziva's bottom lip trembled and her voice caught. She took another breath. "I knew that the moment I told him he had a daughter, he would have dropped everything, and I did not want to make him do that. But after a while, I realized that keeping it from him was worse." Ziva turned to Tali and smiled warmly. "So when Trent Kort did what he did, I decided it was time." Ziva continued, returning her gaze to Gibbs. "Time to disappear. Time to..." She trailed off.

"...die," Gibbs finished. He looked away from the window and met her gaze. Ziva nodded.

"I cannot change the past," she said, rising to her feet to meet Gibbs. "Which is why I am here, now, trying to make things right."

As Gibbs and Ziva stared at each other, the front door to their right swung open. Ziva sprung into defense mode, shoving Gibbs to the side and pulling out her sidearm. Just as she was about to call out for the person to state their identity, Tony pushed through the doorway, his arms occupied by a huge paper bag full of food.

"Abba!" Tali cried out cheerfully, dropping her dolls and running over to where Tony stood in the doorway. She hugged his left leg, latching on as he shuffled over to the kitchen table in the adjoining room. She squealed in delight when he lifted her off of the ground as he walked. Ziva hastily shoved her gun back into its holster, glaring daggers at the back of Tony's head.

"Hey guys," Tony greeted with an impish smile as he set down the bag on the kitchen table. "I bought all the goods." He reached into the bag and pulled out a package of assorted clownycakes, waving them in front of Ziva's face tantalizingly. Ziva pursed her lips, unamused. Tali let go of Tony's leg and climbed up onto a chair so as to see into the bag better.

"Ima, can I have one?" Tali asked sweetly, giving Ziva her best smile. She looked exactly like Tony.

"No, Tali." Ziva said, shaking her head. "Those are not healthy. In fact-" Ziva glared at Tony again, "-they should not have been purchased in the first place." Tali whined and puffed out her bottom lip in a pout.

"Oh, c'mon Ziva," Tony pleaded, "let her live a little." Ziva crossed her arms and opened her mouth to argue, but she was interrupted by Gibbs.

"Are you two done?" He asked gruffly. "I would like to figure out how to catch the guy who tried to kill us last night."

"That's a great idea Boss." Tony said, extracting a clownycake from the package. He took a huge bite of it, chewing with his mouth open, while making eye contact with Ziva.

"Like I said before," Ziva said, tearing her eyes away from Tony to look at Gibbs, "I think we should look at the places that are significant to him or related to his sister's death. If he is really out for revenge, the symbolism will be everything to him."

"Even better idea, sweetcheeks," Tony said, his mouth full of clownycake. "But there's a lot of those, most of them probably in Mexico...so where do we start?"

"The safe house," Gibbs said, "the one where Paloma died."

* * *

Bishop sat at her desk, trying to keep her mind off of Ziva. She was sorting through the rental car company's records, trying to find more information on the mystery renter, Laura Daniels. So far, nothing had proven nor disproven Ziva's involvement, and with every passing minute, Bishop wondered if her silence was doing more harm than good. She glanced over the top of her computer at McGee who was hard at work at his desk, contemplating saying something, but at the last second, she decided against it, looking back at her computer screen anxiously.

McGee, noticing Bishop's stolen glance, sat up a little taller in his office chair to look over at her questioningly. She avoided his gaze.

"You...okay...?" McGee asked, raising an eyebrow at Bishop. Torres looked up at them from his desk on the other side of the bullpen.

"Yeah," Bishop said, shrugging him off. "I'm fine." She put on her best smile. Torres returned to filling in information on the form for the BOLO on Gibbs. McGee studied her for a second longer before he too returned to his work. Her smile fell the moment McGee looked away. She felt guilty for keeping this secret. McGee has known Ziva for years, while she has never even met Ziva. It seemed unfair that she knew such a damning secret about someone she hardly knew, while the others who knew her better lived in ignorance, still feeling the dull ache that never truly leaves you after the loss of a friend.

Just as Bishop was about to force herself to focus on work again, McGee's phone began to ring. He answered it. It was Kasie, asking him to come down to the lab. Bishop perked up in her seat, a sudden rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins. Maybe Kasie got a hit on the DNA from the blood found in the car. Maybe now she would finally get some answers.

Bishop and Torres both followed McGee down to Kasie's lab, Bishop practically stepping on McGee's heels as they exited the elevator.

"Good news!" Kasie called from her computer as they entered the lab. "I'm running the blood samples you gave me from the back seat of the car, and I found two distinct DNA profiles."

"So there were two people in the car," Torres said.

Kasie nodded. "At the least."

"Did you get a match?" McGee asked.

"Well, no," Kasie said, "but I do know that one is a male and the other is a female. The first thing I did was run the male's DNA against Gibbs's DNA and it didn't match. Which means one of two things-"

McGee interrupted, "-either Gibbs wasn't involved or-"

"-he was in the car but he wasn't injured." Kasie finished. "I'm leaning towards the latter, though, considering he's currently MIA."

"What database are you running the profiles through now?" Bishop asked, her heart racing.

"Uh, pretty much the usual, just CODIS for now," Kasie answered. "Why? Is there another one where you think we might get a hit?"

"No, um, I was just wondering." Bishop said, trying to hide her disappointment. McGee watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"Okay, well," Kasie said, fidgeting a little. "If you'll excuse me, I really have to go to the restroom. I've had to go for a while now, but I waited until I updated you guys."

"Okay, no problem," McGee said, he and Torres turning to leave. McGee hung back. "Bishop, you coming?"

"Uh, I think I'm going to stay here," Bishop said. McGee gave her a questioning look. "I'm going to watch the blood samples while Kasie's gone...see if we get a hit."

"Alright..." McGee said, slightly confused. "Torres and I will check in on the BOLO we put out on Gibbs and his car." Bishop nodded her head in understanding, leaning against Kasie's desk. She stifled a wince as she watched McGee, Torres, and Kasie exit the lab. If McGee wasn't suspicious of her before, he definitely was now.

Bishop turned back to Kasie's computer, watching the screen as the software sorted through the thousands of DNA profiles entered into CODIS. She placed her hand on the mouse, hesitating a second before clicking to change the search database. She selected the database labeled 'NCIS Employees' and expanded the search to include both current and former employment. Faces and profiles flashed before her eyes, some of them she recognized, some she didn't. The computer had been sorting for no less than three seconds before it froze on a face and a matching profile, sounding off a loud beeping noise to signal that it had made a match. Bishop's heart sank.

Ziva David's deadpanning face stared up at her from the screen, the ex-Mossad agent's hair slicked neatly back into a french braid. The computer beeped loudly once again, and another face popped up onto the screen. The other blood profile had been matched to its owner. Bishop's gut wrenched. Tony Dinozzo's dashingly handsome face smoldered at her, the green bar that signaled a match blinked above his head.

There was no avoiding it now. She had to find Gibbs.

* * *

_Thanks everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long. I had to figure out where I was going with it. Just remember that I still have the rest of the story to write so if you think there are some questions that still need to be answered, don't worry! I'll get to them. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible. _

_Thanks for reading :)_


	3. Chapter 3

_Hey there NCIS readers, here's the next chapter! Thanks to those who reviewed, favorited, and followed! :)_

* * *

Before she knew what she was doing, Bishop dragged the mouse up to the top left corner of the screen, clicking on the button 'delete search'. The two ghostly faces disappeared from the screen, the computer returning to CODIS.

"Did I hear a beep?" Kasie said from behind her, making Bishop jump. Bishop turned around quickly, trying to act casual. Kasie was just entering the lab, still drying her hands with a paper towel.

"No," Bishop said, smiling innocently.

"Oh," Kasie said, furrowing her eyebrows in slight confusion. "I thought I heard something when I exited the restroom."

"No, uh..." Bishop looked around the lab for an excuse. Finding nothing useful, she said, "It was me...I sneezed." Kasie raised her eyebrows, giving Bishop a weird look.

"Oh, well, bless you," Kasie said, shrugging. "Too bad we haven't gotten a match yet." Kasie moved around Bishop to take a closer look at the computer. "I'm usually faster than this. Maybe I'm off my game."

"I don't think that's it." Bishop said uncomfortably. "What other evidence do you have to sort through?"

"The car was wiped down, so no fingerprints were found," Kasie said, ticking off her fingers as she listed things. "We have some miscellaneous fibers from the seats which the mass spec is processing as we speak. And the only other trace evidence we found were some hairs on the front seats. I examined those, but none of them have the follicle attached, so all I have is the mitochondrial DNA from the hair's medulla-"

"Mitochondrial DNA comes from the mother, right?" Bishop asked.

"That's correct, Ellie!" Kasie exclaimed proudly. "Congratulations, you just graduated from a Level 2 to a Level 3." She gestured to the science hierarchy which she now had posted on her wall and laminated. Bishop was too distracted to reply. "That's a pretty big accomplishment, you know." Kasie continued. "You're almost on the same level as McGee."

"Does the mitochondrial DNA get us anywhere?" Bishop asked, ignoring Kasie's comments for the sake of time.

"Well, not exactly." Kasie answered. "Since it comes from the mother, any matches that come up are rare and less accurate, so it really doesn't give us anything that the blood samples don't. I'm still running them though-where are you going?"

Bishop was already half-way out of the lab. "Thanks, Kase!" She called behind her shoulder.

Once safely concealed in the elevator, she took out her phone and dialed Gibbs for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. It went straight to voicemail. She tried him three more times before deciding it was futile. She was about to give up when she scrolled to another number that sadly, she hadn't called in a while. The number was Tony's. It went to voicemail too, but this time she waited until it beeped.

"Tony, it's me, Ellie," she began. The elevator doors opened to the first floor and she walked out into the NCIS lobby, exiting through the front doors to the parking lot. "Listen to me. I know, okay? I know about everything. Ask Ziva. I want to help. Meet me in an hour, Ziva will know where. Please, I'm worried. Bye." She ended the message. She rushed out to her car, hoping to God that Tony would get her message.

* * *

"God, I missed this," Tony said jumping into the car, hyper with excitement. They were about to head to the safe house where Paloma Reynosa was killed accidentally by her brother, Alejandro Rivera. "I miss being a fed. Working cases, kicking ass, saving lives-"

"The only ass that got kicked when you worked for me was yours, Dinozzo," Gibbs said, stepping into the driver's side of the car. "By me." Tony deflated a little, unable to argue. Ziva stifled a laugh. She was walking towards the car, holding Tali's hand as they walked.

"On a more serious note," Ziva said, her expression changing. "What are we going to do with Tali?" Ziva reached down and hoisted Tali into her arms, balancing the little girl on her hip. "We cannot bring her with us, Gibbs. Alejandro could be anywhere. We can barely protect ourselves, let alone a child."

"She's right," Tony agreed. "It'll be safer for Tali to be away from us. We took a risk bringing her when we went to warn you, and look how that turned out."

"And," Ziva added, "both of us should be with you at all times Gibbs. All protection details traditionally have at least two agents."

"_I can protect myself_," Gibbs grumbled to himself before deciding it was better not to argue. "Fine, but we don't have anyone else to watch her, so someone has to stay behind."

Ziva and Tony looked at each other.

Tony was the first to speak. "Well, I'm already in the car..."

"Are you serious right now?" Ziva said.

"What?"

"She's your daughter, too."

"Yes, and I love her, but-"

"I refuse to stay behind and wait helplessly on the sideline, worrying about you two."

"Well, then get someone else to watch her!"

There was a beat of silence, then Tony and Ziva both slowly turned to look at Gibbs.

"No," he said.

"Which one of us would you rather have backing you up?" Tony asked, covertly motioning for Gibbs to pick him.

"You're not dragging me into this."

"Oh, come on, Boss-"

"Wait," Ziva interrupted. They looked at her. "I have an idea."

They drove to the nearest town which was about fifteen miles away and stopped at a cafe. While still in the car, Ziva took Tony's phone and turned it on, hoping that no one was tracking it. As the phone loaded, Ziva took a deep soothing breath. She was starting to rethink her plan. Gibbs didn't know that Ziva had told Ellie Bishop that she was alive, but they needed help, and Bishop seemed like their only option. She figured that since Gibbs was going to find out eventually anyway, she might as well utilize Bishop's offer to help now.

Just as she was about to place a call, she saw that Tony had a missed call and a voicemail from none other than Ellie Bishop herself. Worry filled her heart. What if NCIS had already figured out her and Tony's involvement?

"What is your plan, anyway?" Tony asked her, seeing the worry flash in her eyes.

Ziva calmed herself. "You'll see." She hesitated, then she said, "You have a voicemail."

Tony furrowed his eyebrows. "From who?" Gibbs twisted around in the seat to look at the phone. Ziva pressed the play button on the message and Bishop's voice rang out through the cabin of the car.

"_Tony, it's me, Ellie. Listen to me. I know, okay? I know about everything. Ask Ziva. I want to help. Meet me in an hour, Ziva will know where. Please, I'm worried. Bye._"

Tony and Gibbs stared at Ziva, both speechless.

"Your plan is to bring Bishop into this?" Tony asked her, surprised. "But, you've never even met her. And she knows? How did she find out? Did she tell McGee?" Tony kept rattling off questions, too perplexed to wait for Ziva to answer.

"I do not know if she told McGee," Ziva said, choosing her words carefully. "But since she knows, she can watch Tali."

Gibbs gave Ziva a steely look, his nostrils flared. "What does she mean by 'Ask Ziva'?" He said.

Ziva opened her mouth but Gibbs began speaking again, his voice rising. "You told her? She's known this whole time?" Tali whimpered from the back seat, hiding behind her stuffed monkey. She clearly did not like angry Gibbs. Gibbs lowered his voice again, growling through his teeth. "How long has she known?"

Ziva licked her lips, bracing herself for Gibbs's wrath. "Only a few months," she answered calmly. She had been expecting a reaction like this. "It was after your team caught the Morgan Burke case. I promised Morgan's mother that I would read a letter to the man that hurt her daughter, so I came back and did just that. Do not be mad at Ellie, Gibbs, I asked her to keep it a secret."

"You didn't tell me that." Tony said quietly.

"Yeah," Gibbs said bitterly. "There's been a lot of that lately."

"You told me you had to go to the states for business." Tony said, ignoring Gibbs's comment. Ziva looked at him, fighting the guilt that was eating at her.

"I am very sorry," she said, speaking to both Tony and Gibbs.

"How can we trust you if you keep withholding information?" Gibbs asked harshly. Ziva took a deep breath.

"I should not have lied to you," she began, "but what I did, I did for your protection." Gibbs blew air out of his nose and turned back around to face forward in his seat. "This is the last of the secrets, and I know it's not worth much right now, but trust me, only the truth from here on out."

Gibbs and Tony both gave her long looks. She met each of their gazes steadily and sincerely. The did not seem totally convinced, but the tension in their shoulders relaxed just enough to show Ziva that they knew there wasn't time for further argument. They had to let it go for the sake of time. Any fighting or apologizing would have to wait.

Sensing the change in mood in the car, Tali peeked out from behind her stuffed monkey with wide eyes as her mother pressed the button on Tony's cellphone to power it off again.

"What are you doing?" Tony asked, his voice cutting through the thick silence. "Don't you have to call Bishop?"

"This message was left an hour ago," Ziva said as though she didn't hear the question. "We better hurry."

"The message said she would meet us someplace." Gibbs answered Tony for Ziva. He looked at Ziva, as though prompting her.

"Like she said," Ziva nodded, "I know where that is."

* * *

McGee stared worriedly at his phone, which was sitting silently in the corner of his desk. First Gibbs went missing and now Bishop? He couldn't help but feel a little annoyed; he noticed that Bishop had been acting weird, and he suspected that she might have been withholding something. Now she was gone, and he was none the wiser. She must have figured something out about where Gibbs was and then bolted. But what kind of information could she have discovered that would cause her to keep it from the rest of the team?

"Where's Ellie?" A voice interrupted McGee's thoughts.

He looked up to find Jack Sloane leaning against the cubicle wall next to his desk. She was wearing a knee-length camel trench coat, her white-collared blouse peeking out at the neck. He was so distracted that he hadn't noticed her approach the bullpen.

"I don't know," McGee said, trying not to let his annoyance show. "She's gone, just like Gibbs."

"You think they're together?" Sloane observed. It was more of a statement than a question.

"It would be the only explanation that doesn't make Bishop's actions a fireable offense." McGee said bitterly. "We know that Gibbs is in trouble because he would not just disappear like this, so if Bishop went off to help him, she's doing her job. I just don't understand why she didn't tell us."

"I'm worried about them too," Sloane admitted, glancing at the two empty desks. "Gibbs has been acting weird lately. Maybe Ellie got some information that is damaging to Gibbs, and she decided to protect him by keeping quiet."

McGee perked up in his chair, a fleeting idea had struck his mind. He couldn't believe that he hadn't thought of it before. Sloane looked at him questioningly. With everything that had happened over the course of the last couple of weeks, it made sense that the reason Gibbs disappeared was related to what he did thirty years ago.

McGee jumped into action, waking up his computer and clicking on the BOP database link on his desktop. Sloane, seeing what McGee was doing, raised her eyebrows.

"The Bureau of Prisons database?" She said. McGee didn't answer. He typed faster than he had ever typed before, searching the database for the prison records of Alejandro Rivera.

The computer slowly loaded the records, Alejandro's photo gradually developing from the bottom up. McGee's heart plummeted. A bright red bar blinked above Alejandro's glaring mugshot; it read "WANTED" in white block letters. Linked at the bottom was a report. McGee clicked on it. He swallowed a gasp. Rivera had escaped from prison three weeks ago.

"Who is Alejandro Rivera?" Sloane asked. She scanned the report with narrowed eyes, confused by McGee's reaction. McGee immediately reached for his cell phone. "McGee?" Sloane said, waving her hand to get his attention. "Hello?"

"Alejandro Rivera is...a very bad man." McGee said, struggling with the truth. He stopped dialing on his phone to look at Jack.

Sloane rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I guessed that much."

"A couple years back, a drug cartel leader named Paloma Reynosa tried to kill Gibbs and his father." McGee began, choosing his words carefully and leaving out the first half of that story. "In order to escape her, Gibbs tricked Alejandro Rivera into open firing upon a safe house where Gibbs and his father were supposed to be hiding out. Instead, Rivera ended up accidentally killing Paloma, who had been in the house at the time looking for Gibbs. Alejandro and Paloma are brother and sister."

"Gibbs tricked Rivera into murdering his own sister?" Sloane said, her lips slightly parted in shock.

"It's what put him in prison." McGee said, nodding. "But it says here that he recently escaped, and it can't be a coincidence that Gibbs is now missing."

"I mean, it does make sense why this guy would be out for Gibbs's blood." Sloane said, squinting at the computer screen again.

"But it doesn't necessarily explain the shot up mystery rental car or the foreign blood stains in the backseat." McGee said, twisting his lips in thought.

But then he remembered something else. There were only a handful of people who were around during that portion of NCIS history: Tony, Ziva, Abby, Vance, Ducky, and Palmer. Tony was in Paris, Ziva was dead, Abby was retired, and Vance, Ducky, and Palmer were all still in the Navy yard and not off with Gibbs somewhere, so therefore, out of the current team, only he would have truly recognized Alejandro Rivera's name and the significance of his escape, not so much Bishop. So what had sent her running? What would have made her drop everything without a word to anyone?

A crazy thought crossed his mind. No. It couldn't be. But the two unknown blood profiles... He had to check. He dialed Kasie's number on his phone as he stood in his chair. Sloane asked him where he was going, but he didn't answer, so she followed him to the elevator.

"Hey, Kasie," McGee greeted the forensic technician hurriedly when she picked up, "have you gotten a hit yet on the blood? No? I think I know why."

* * *

Gibbs parked the car along the sidewalk beside a white mailbox that was in front of a simple one-story house with a colorful and well-kept garden. Shiny pinwheels whizzed away in between the flower beds, windchimes played their idyllic music from where they hung from the edge of the roof overhanging the front door, and somewhere a fountain gurgled and sloshed with water.

After exiting the car, Ziva took a huge deep breath, inhaling the fresh and familiar scents of honeysuckle and jasmine, suddenly reminded of how much she missed her days in America. It had been years since she had been back at her old hideaway, the tiny modestly-furnished shed located the backyard of this house. She had rented out the shed soon after joining NCIS as a Mossad liaison, using it as her sacred space where she could write about and further investigate cases that were especially hard for her to let go. Not long ago, Ellie Bishop had discovered it, and Ziva soon learned that Bishop had recently begun renting it out, just like she had years before.

_Ziva will know where to meet. _

"What is this place?" Tony asked, swatting away a bee that flew too close to his face. Ziva squinted over at him in the sunlight. She knew how Gibbs felt about taking cases personally, so she had kept it a secret. Even from Tony.

"That way," Ziva commanded, ignoring his question. She nodded to a narrow gravel pathway that led around the side of the house. After she unbuckled Tali, she glanced at the driveway to the house, relaxing a little more once she noted that there was no car parked in it, therefore no one would be home to discover her.

Tony and Gibbs followed her and Tali into the backyard of the house, heading for the shed. Tali ran slightly ahead of the adults, giggling as she explored the garden. As soon as they rounded the corner of the house, the door of the shed popped open and a blonde head poked out. Ellie Bishop watched them from the doorway, her blue eyes wide, as they trekked to the shed, winding their way around box shrubs and little garden gnomes.

"I can't believe you're here." Bishop said, when they were only a few steps away, her voice quiet with disbelief. "You're actually here."

"Eleanor Bishop," Ziva greeted, smiling warmly. She held out her hand.

"Ziva David," Bishop returned, matching Ziva's smile. She took Ziva's hand and shook it, slightly dazed. "You really are alive. It's really good to finally meet you." She stared at Ziva in awe, as though still unsure if this was real. For years, Bishop had longed to meet her predecessor, and as much as she hated it, she often felt pinned underneath Ziva's shadow and the weight of her death. Maybe now she might get some closure.

"You know, I'm really starting to feel left out here," Tony said from behind Ziva. He feigned a pout. "Jesus, it's almost like Ziva died or something."

"Tony!" Bishop said, embracing her friend tightly. She laughed, snapping out of her daze. "It's been way too long." She looked down and spotted Tali, who was hiding behind her mother's leg. "And you are Tali." Bishop squatted down to Tali's height. She remembered when they had brought Tali to NCIS shortly after Ziva's feigned death. Tali had been so young then. "You are getting to be so big! How old are you now?" Bishop asked enthusiastically. Tali slowly held up five fingers, a proud smile slowly growing on her face. Bishop gasped in amazement. "Wow, you are very grown-up." Tali stepped out a little from behind Ziva's leg. "You probably don't remember me, but-" Bishop was saying, but she stopped suddenly when she saw Gibbs standing a little ways away, his expression icy cold. Ziva noticed too.

"Tony and I will take Tali inside." Ziva announced, grabbing Tali's hand and entering the cabin. She grabbed Tony's arm by the sleeve of his coat and dragged him after her, his expression one of a child who was disappointed that he could not eavesdrop on the adults' conversation. No one spoke until the door of the shed slammed shut behind them.

"I know what you're thinking Gibbs-" Bishop said before Gibbs could say anything.

"No, I don't think you do." Gibbs said, walking closer to Bishop.

Bishop looked at the floor, her shoulders tensing as she prepared to get fired. "I'd apologize, Gibbs, but I know how you feel about that-"

"Then don't." Gibbs interrupted. Bishop continued talking, rushing her words.

"The last time I kept a secret about Ziva, you told me that if I ever kept something like that from you again, I would be done. Done being an agent. Done being on your team..." Bishop said, her words spilling out as though she had been preparing this explanation for a while. "But you have to understand, Gibbs, I did it to-"

"-protect Ziva." Gibbs finished, nodding his head. "...and Tony, and Tali...I know that Ziva asked you to keep her secret. And while I wish she had told me too, I know now that she had her reasons, and as far as I'm concerned, you were doing your job."

"Wow, um, okay...great." Bishop said, slightly stunned. "You know, I had like a whole thing prepared...I just..." Bishop opened and closed her mouth, not knowing what to say. Then, in a flash, Gibbs's hand swung up and cuffed the back of her head, leaving a slight stinging sensation on her scalp, but she was too stunned to notice. She stared at Gibbs, and he gave her a crooked smile with a slight twinkle in his blue eyes before pushing past her to enter the shed. Bishop slowly turned around to watch Gibbs go. _Did he really just_...

Tony stepped out of the shed just after Gibbs stepped in. "It means he likes you, ya know." He said. He strode over to Bishop and put and arm around her shoulders to guide her back to the shed. "Welcome to the club, probie."

* * *

"So Alejandro Rivera is the one who is behind that crazy shooting outside your house?" Bishop said after they had filled her in on the details. They were back in the car now, on their way to the safe house where Bishop would be staying to watch Tali. "After the brief run in we had with him a few years ago, I thought we'd seen the last of him."

"Yes, and apparently not," Ziva said, blinking her long dark eyelashes. She was sitting in the backseat with Bishop, leaning with one arm against Tali's carseat between them. "And now we must go and find him."

"Okay, cool. Where do we start?" Bishop said, placing her hands on her knees, ready to go. Tony, who was driving, looked up at Ziva uncomfortably through the rearview mirror. Ziva bit her lip. Gibbs tried and failed not to smirk from the passenger's seat. The three jolted slightly as they passed over a bump in the road in silence.

"Well..." Tony tried before trailing off. "See, the thing is..." He scratched the back of his neck.

"We need you to watch Tali." Ziva finished bluntly. Bishop looked down at Tali who was smiling serenely at her from her carseat.

"...you brought me in on this because you needed a babysitter?"

"Not a babysitter!" Tony exclaimed. "No, a _protection detail_."

"Ellie," Ziva began, pinching Tony's arm. "We don't mean to offend you. We just want a way to keep Tali safe from Rivera, and the best way to do that is to keep her with an agent."

"I'm not offended," Bishop's mouth twisted. "Just, disappointed, to be honest." She looked at Tali again and then smiled. "But if what you need is for me to protect Tali then I can do that. No problem."

Ziva smiled warmly in gratitude.

* * *

Once Bishop and Tali were acclimated to the safe house, Gibbs, Tony, and Ziva piled back into the car to make the drive to the safe house where Paloma was killed. When they turned onto the long private drive that led to the house's driveway, they planned the execution of their raid. Ziva and Gibbs were to go in together through the front door, while Tony circled around the back to enter through the back door.

Tony parked the car about a hundred yards away from the house, hidden behind a clump of brambles. Ziva slinked out of the car first, shrinking against the ground and hugging the trees like a cat, her glock pointed at the ground in front of her, as though her training from the days of being an agent had never left her. Tony did the same but in the opposite direction and a little more clumsily. He cut through the trees on the left-hand side of the house, heading for the back of the house, tripping over a rock as he did so. Gibbs followed Ziva, his stance more relaxed than hers, his icy blue eyes critically assessing the situation.

There were no signs that anyone was currently or had been staying there; there were no cars near by, smoke from the chimney, or any sounds emanating from inside the house. Gibbs made eye contact with Tony from across the clearing and motioned for him to move forward. He and Ziva shuffled forward, reaching the front porch easily. They paused for a second, giving Tony time to get into position before proceeding. Ziva stepped back for momentum before she kicked down the door in one swift motion, Gibbs swooping into the house first, calling out a fierce "NCIS!"

All of the rooms were clear.

Gibbs headed back towards the living room near the front of the house to meet up with Tony and Ziva, trying not to feel too angry that Alejandro wasn't there. Part of him knew though, that if Alejandro had been here, it would have been too easy. Just as he passed the last room before the living room, a flash of blue caught his eye. He stopped, peering through the doorway into the room.

It was a bedroom, meekly furnished with a single twin bed shoved into the corner and a dresser bordering the opposite wall. Both pieces of furniture were white, and the bed reeked of mothballs. What caught his eye was a tiny piece of blue paper that sat folded on the bed, an odd pop of color in the bland monochrome room. He stepped through the doorway to examine the note. The paper was rough to the touch and unfolded to reveal a messy scrawl that spelled out a message. The hair on the back of Gibbs's neck stood up.

It was from Alejandro himself.

* * *

_The next chapter will be up soon! And I would just like to offer a friendly reminder to you guys that what I am writing is fanfiction, it's not like I'm actually writing for the show itself, so if you have criticisms please either make them constructive or consider keeping them to yourself. I enjoy hearing what people think of my work, even if they don't think it's perfect (because it's not), but I don't enjoy getting comments about how the fictional decisions I make in this story are factually incorrect...like, it's fanfiction people, chill out a little. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. _

_Other than that, thanks for reading, you guys are great. _


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